I was in early adolescence when I saw Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film “The Birds.” Critics were mixed in their reception. I wasn’t. It terrified me. Before I watched the film, I’d thought of birds as benign and decorative. I saw them as accessories. They looked good sitting on docks, perched on phone lines. They made nice sounds. And they fly, which is one of...
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During my 30s and 40s living in Miami, I babysat for my niece and nephew when they were pre-school age. They glided between Spanish and English, but some words were relegated only to Spanish. One of those for my nephew Lucas was moco, booger. He often jammed his finger up his four-year-old nose, excavating. When he found the motherlode, he’d pull out his...
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Just last week Julie, Roberta and I sat in a seaside pub nursing pints of beer, pecking at a mound of French fries and giggling at one another. Every couple of years, the three of us fly across the Big Pond to some small waterfront European town and spend a few weeks indulging in our holy and powerful friendship trinity: idleness, spontaneity and...
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On a recent, overbooked flight, me and the guy behind me—we were at the end of the boarding line—were upgraded to first class. We scurried to stow our carry-ons and buckle in. Buzzed from the unexpectedness of that random sprinkling of fortune, I sank into my leather-upholstered seat, stretched out my legs, and shut my eyes. When I heard the click of my...
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It is a Wednesday night in early February. About 40 of us sit around tables in one of our conference rooms. We’ve gathered for the first of four meeting to help craft a university policy around AI use in academic work. As a writing professor, I’ve been awash in research, anecdotes, white papers, and jeremiads about AI and student writing. AI is a vast,...
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